The Senate is reviewing new regulations for the Food and Drug Administration that advocates say would help the agency cope with ever greater volume and variety of food imports.  Jane Zhang reports in the Wall Street Journal that the FDA would now only need to target foods from groups that have traditionally been labelled "high-risk."  Behind the scenes is a struggle over whether the FDA will increase its monitoring capabilities — and thus its budget.

The Washington Post has published a major investigation by Gilbert Gaul into the Department of Agriculture’s lending program for rural areas, known as the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program.  11% of the program’s borrowers have defaulted between 2001-2007, totalling nearly $1.5 billion.  But the program’s defenders argue that they may be the only source of development credit available for some rural areas and that "a job at minimum wage is better than no job at all."  Read more. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is facing the need to ramp up its design approval and construction monitoring services as the number of projected new nuclear plants has climbed up to as many as 31.  Matthew Wald of The New York Times reports that recent enthusiasm for nuclear energy has sparked a rush for approval of new designs, while the agency is working at staff levels that evolved when nuclear power was out of favor.  Read more.